New Player Guide
Hello, and welcome to Freelancer Wiki's first attempt at a Player Guide! Throughout this guide we will explain to you the basic mechanics of this game and guide you through the campaign. Preface Freelancer is an arcade space shooter game, and as such does not support joysticks. Instead, the player controls his ship with a mouse and keyboard. Freelancer allows the player to explore the game world to (almost) their heart's content and accumulate in-game resources in various ways, such as trading, running missions, pirating various ships, looting wrecks, mining etc. . The first part of this guide will be dedicated to the campagin, and as such assumes you are playing Freelancer in its unmodified vanilla state. The Campaign As soon as you click New Game, you will see a movie about the destruction of Freeport 7 by unknown ships, and your survival inside an Escape Pod. Soon after, you will arrive on Planet Manhattan via an Armored Transport. After the cutscene is over, you will be allowed to move about Planet Manhattan as you wish. Visiting the Bar will trigger an advancement into the storyline, as you will meet Jun'ko Zane, your future employer. After you rudely interrupt (and ruin) a business conversation, Juni, as you now know her, will tell you to go to the Equipment Room, where you will receive a ship, and the actual game will begin. Mission 1 Before leaving Planet Manhattan, you have a choice of buying one more gun with the $500 you have, or selling your Nanobots and Batteries in the Internal Equipment tab at the Equipment Dealer and upgrading to class 2 guns. After destroying the Order ships you will fly to Ft. Bush where you will enter formation with the USV Brandt and proceed to Planet Pittsburgh where you will be ambushed. Here lies an easter egg: after killing all the pirates you are told to re-enter formation and leave, but, if you choose to go against the orders and stay(don't linger too long though, you might fail the mission, consider ~2-3 minutes as the upper limit before you get the mission failed screen, as it is easy to get lost since the pirates spawn endlessly) you will be given an additional bounty reward once arriving at Planet Pittsburgh. After hearing King's plan, you can launch into space to continue the campaign. But before you do so, you have the option to either upgrade your shield to a Class 2 one, or your guns to Class 2 ones, or both of those if you picked up the easter egg, without which you wouldn't have enough credits to do both. When you launch into space, you will enter formation with the LPI ships near the planet and aid a Prison Ship under attack by the Liberty Rogues. If you chose to upgrade your weapons to Class 2, this will be a cakewalk as your damage will very easily dispatch the Rogues. The shield doesn't do much here, since the Rogues have come to a gentleman's agreement to politely ignore the player as he is new to this whole thing. Upon securing the area you will receive a transmission from another ship, namely Beta 4, who is requesting support. Queue some more Liberty Rogue abuse, and you will be told by Beta 4 of the location of their base. Here's where the shield will make an impact if you are an inexperienced player, as you will have an easier time dealing with the base with the Class 2 shield. Shortly after destroying the base, you will be told to go to Pittsburgh, after which you will be granted freedom of movement throughout the New York system. Advancing to Mission 2 Your options in this game are still fairly limited at this point, but you are beginning to have some sense of freedom. You can advance to the next campaign mission by doing normal missions (quests, if you will). Under normal circumstances you need about 3-4 missions to get a call from Juni and trigger the next mission. However, there are some more options, such as trading, which is very limited at this point, with very low profit margins, and thus not recommended. If you are however a masochist and insist upon suffering, you can haul Diamonds or Artifacts from Rochester Base (sector 3C) to Manhattan for about 40$ profit per unit, or Pharmaceuticals from Manhattan to Pittsburgh and Boron on the way back for even less. But, there is also the option of looting wrecks. New York has 3 wreck areas, in sectors 6C 6D and 6E. The important one is in 6C and it is named Flint. It contains 20 cardamine, which sell for $1500 each on Manhattan. Beware of radiation near the Flint though, and bring Nanobots with you if you are inexperienced in flying. After selling the Cardamine, you should have more than enough money to advance to Mission 2. Mission 2 Upon landing on Manhattan and speaking to Juni in the Bar, you will be offered a job to hunt down an artifact smuggler in the Colorado system, Sean Ashcroft. However, before leaving the planet, you are stopped by your old contact from Freeport 7, and the man you sold your ore to, Lonnigan. You ask him for your money for the ore, which he obviously doesn't have, as Freeport 7 very clearly blew up, something Trent seems to have conveniently forgot about. Convenient, huh? Lonnigan's hissy fit is interrupted however, as Lonnigan is shot with a tranquilizer and you are administered some well deserved voltage from a stun baton thing. After conveniently waking up to Juni sitting above you as she tries to talk to you, to no avail. Seeing this, she cracks you a good one in the face, after which you finally awake and get up. After recalling some past events to Juni and King, you are promptly slapped by King too, just for good measure. After launching into space, you'll proceed to the Colorado Jump Gate while talking to King. In Colorado, you are ordered to assume a position near the trade lane and scan for artifact smugglers. After eating a few donuts, your target pops up on the HUD. It's a Patriot class ship and it has 20 artifacts, causing King to hail him and ask him to seize, which he of course does not do. What the "smuggler" seems to forget though, is that he is in the house of Liberty, which is space America. Needless to say, King is only too glad to indulge in some police brutality, after which the smuggle will tell you to sod off. With perfect timing, Juni calls to have you check Pueblo Station, which was attacked by Rogues while trying to set up a trap for them. A little side note here, if you have a Defender or any ship with a decent amount of guns, and have Lavablades, you can one shot the smuggler, kill him, and steal his artifacts. No one will mind or care. More to come. Ship guide Part of this guide is also a detailed ship guide which compares the different ships in an attempt to help you choose your ships. Starflier - Your starter ship, very agile and quite small, but limited in weapons, both in equippable weapon class and overall gun mounts. No cruise disruptor. There's not much reason to use the Starflier for more than you have to, unless you are fond of it. Patriot - An upgrade over the Starflier in every imaginable way, it is still very agile, has more guns and can mount higher classes of guns and shields. Comes with a cruise disruptor as well as mines and countermeasures. Compared to the Bloodhound and the Dagger, the other two light fighters in Liberty, it is more agile and smaller than both of them but also has less armor and firepower than them. Dagger - Purchaseable only on Buffalo Base, this is the best liberty light fighter. It has 4 guns and a turret, all firing forward, of which 2 guns and the turret are class 4, the rest are 3. This is the most powerful light fighter, and it is quite ridiculous. It's as agile as the Bloodhound, has more firepower and energy than it, all while being smaller. Compared to the Defender, which is a heavy fighter, it's a little bit less agile, but has lower mass, so it accelerates and strafes faster. It also has more armor and energy than the Defender, while losing a gun. Bloodhound - The epitome of useless, a recurring theme in pirate ships. Although it has the highest armor in Liberty, whatever positive impact this might have had is completely squandered by its size. It is BLOODY HUGE, as you probably have noticed after effortlessly putting down tens of these. It has 3 guns and a turret, of which one gun the turret are class 4. The only reason to use this ship is if you want a challenge or you like its looks. Defender - The Liberty heavy fighter, it has two class 4 guns and a class 4 turret, the others being class 3. It can mount a Class 4 HF shield, to which you will not have access to until after the Liberty part of the campaign. Overall this is a very good package, easier and cheaper to acquire than the Dagger(but not by much), with more damage capability but less sustainability. A fun thing about this ship is its cruise disruptor slot, which, as with all heavy fighters, can take a torpedo slot aswell, though you will only get one in Bretonia, when you will have access to another, better, heavy fighter. Rhino - The standard Liberty freighter. Although it is a freighter, it can be a combat ship in inexperienced hands due to the fact that freighter shields are the highest capacity and recharge rate. Personally I used this when I was new at the game, and it was the only way I could get past Mission 3. Mostly because my flying skills at the time were comprised of flying straight and shooting at an enemy while spamming F and G. It has 80 cargo and costs around 10k, and is easily accesible. Mule - The Pirate freighter, and a competitor to the Rhino. In similar "generic Pirate" ship design, this is quite big. It's exactly as agile as all the other freighters, as they share their flight models, except the Humpback, which is a perfected torture device. Compared to the Rhino, it has 10 more cargo, more armor, more energy, a higher class shield, more nanobots and batteries, higher class guns, and most importantly red engines. This is the best freighter in liberty, however, it costs more than double what the Rhino costs, which is still not hard to do, as Freelancer comes from an era when it wasn't in style to grind for 80h to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Piranha - Moving on to Bretonian ships, this is a Bounty Hunter ship, but is avaliable to the player upon reaching Bretonia. If you had the Dagger from Liberty, this is pointless, as it is pretty much exactly what you came with, while losing a gun. Nothing more to say about this. Cavalier - The standard Bretonian light fighter, 2 class 4 guns and 2 class 5 guns. Class 5 LF shield. It's just as agile as the Piranha, Dagger and Bloodhound. This is a fairly decent ship in Bretonia, however it is outclassed by the Legionnaire. Standard bretonian weird underwater creature design. Legionnaire - More armor, energy and bots/bats than Cavalier, at a 50% increase in price, which once again is not difficult to obtain. It's pretty much a better Cavalier. It's shorter in length and height, but has a larger wingspan than Cavalier. Found on Trafalgar Base in New London. Crusader - Bretonia heavy fighter and a proud continuation of bretonian mollusk aesthetics. Or rust, depends. Since there are no other heavy fighters in Bretonia, we'll compare this to the Defender. It's slower than the defender, has no turrets but has 6 guns. Four class 5 guns , the rest are class 4. Class 5 HF shield. More armor, energy and bots/bats than the Defender. Clydesdale - Bretonian freighter. Standard Freighter flight model and agility. 125 cargo, nothing else matters really. Has an overall look that kids like to compare to genitals. Dromedary - Far outclasses anything else bretonian in both price and capability. Bought at Mactan Base in Magellan, requires Lane Hacker rep. Class 6 freighter shield, 275 cargo space and class 6 guns and turrets. Standard freighter agility, as we've come to expect. This is the highest capacity freighter in the game. Costs 62k, which is a little harder to do than the other bretonian ships. Wolfhound - Technically a Kusarian ship by level requirements, but it can be acquired in Bretonia at Arranmore Base in Dublin and Montezuma Base in Cortez. I left this out last so that I can compare it to its two closest rivals, the Barracuda and Dragon. It has the same armor and mobility as the Dragon. It only has 5 guns firing forward, and also has the same energy as the Dragon and Barracuda. But while the Dragon competes againstBarracuda's much superior agility with a very small target profile and reduced copmonent count, the Wolfhound once again is a typical pirate ship, in that it's useless. It's much bigger than even the Barracuda, it's actually comically big, surpassing some freighters. Despite its size, it has absolutely no advantages over the Dragon or Barracuda, making this ship.. pointless. However, there are some very valid reasons to fly this ship. First, it has red engines. THREE of them. Second, it looks like a boat built by idiots. These two facts make this a very appealing choice for the aspiring troll. Dragon - The Kusarian Heavy Fighter, it's as agile(or should I say, as slow) as the Crusader, but has more energy, hull and bots/bats. Of the two Heavy Fighters in Kusari, Dragon is the slower and smaller one. Overall not a bad ship for the campaign, it's smaller size and weird hitbox makes it a valid choice, sometimes even better than the Barracuda (when fighting more enemies, as the ingame AI has more trouble hitting small targets than larger, quicker moving and maneuvering targets). Barracuda - The other heavy fighter choice in Kusari, this is much more agile than the dragon, but also bigger. This is more pleasant to fly, as it is very agile and responsive. This is quite a unique ship, it matches the Falcon and the Hammerhead in agility, and is located above the Defender and even some light fighters, but below the ultra agile ships like the Patriot and Drake. Drake - Kusarian Light Fighter, and a breath of fresh air. After having ships with copy pasted agility such as the Bloodhound, Piranha, Dagger, Cavalier and Legionnaire, this is much more similar to a patriot. It's even smaller and more agile, but it's limited in firepower. Overall a very fun ship, and it is surprisingly durable due to its size and agility. Recommended treatment after Wolfhound intoxication. Not recommended after Humpback treatment, may cause seizures. It has all the things you expect from a light fighter. Drone - Kusarian Freighter, standard freighter agility. 175 cargo, same HP as the Dragon but less energy. Not much else to say, incremental upgrade over the Clydesdale. Purchase not advised, as the Dromedary is better in every way, most importantly cargo space, and is sold at the same price. The only reason to buy this is if you do not have Lane Hacker reputation in order to buy the Dromedary. Banshee - It's as agile as the Legionnaire and Cavalier and the other low agility light fighters, but not more. It has the heaviest armor and power core of all the fighters but is also the largest, thereby nullifying the point of light fighters. Overall not necessarily a bad buy, but nor is it a good one, looks interesting but that's it. Falcon - 6200 armor and 6400 energy make this fighter superior to the Valkyrie in the "power" department. It's larger than the Valkyrie but also much more agile. In fact, as a reference point, if you flew the Barracuda, this is just as agile, while the Valkyrie is exactly like the Dragon. Despite being a heavy fighter, this only has 5 forward firing turrets, which seems to be a recurring theme in heavy fighters that are sold in Rheinland. Valkyrie - The official Rheinland HF, smaller and harder to hit than the Falcon but much slower and with an inferior powerplant at 5400 energy with lower recharge rates as well.(For all ships, the recharge rate of their powerplant is about 10% of its total capacity per second, and their armor value can be used as a rough estimate for their total power capacity for quick estimates.) Humpback - Ahhh, the legend itself, the most evil machine ever created. Breathe deeply as you admire its devilish figure, for this is the perfect torture machine. While on paper it looks very good, beating the Dromedary in Armor and Gun mounts but losing slightly in cargo (250 vs 275), this is merely an evil ploy to mercilessly trick inexperienced players into buying it. This ship is less than HALF as agile as any other freighter in existence, at 22.92 deg/s turn rate, compared to the standard 51.57 deg/s of most other freighters. This ship is the refined essence of everything bad there can be, expertly distilled into one horrible package. It's meant to be a sturdier Dromedary but it fails miserably due to its extremely low agility. Do not buy this thing, it's a waste of credits, especially since it's more expensive than the Dromedary. The only reason you'd ever want this is if you like the design of the ship. Stiletto - Poor Man's rheinland heavy fighter, worse in almost every way compared to the other two. Unlike the Valkyrie and the Falcon, the Stiletto has 6 guns firing forward. Sadly, the max weapon class that it can equip is Class 7. It has less armor and less power than the Valkyrie, but sadly it is also bigger, while being exactly identical as far as agility is concerned. Overall it's not terribly useful, especially since you need Bundschuh and Unioner (because they fly near Bruchsal and turn every pirate red if they're hostile.). It looks interesting but that's pretty much it, since it has the same mass as Valkyrie or Falcon. Hammerhead - The most powerful ship in house space(or very close to it). It's bought at Freistadt in Omega-7 and there's not a lot of reasons to buy this ship. At 351k it's quite expensive, and while it does provide 4 class 9 and 2 class 8 slots, you'll very soon find out that it doesn't do a very good job of keeping them firing for any amount of time. Regardless, this is as agile as the Barracuda and it has the same pros and cons, namely small front and rear profile but gigantic side profile. Centurion - Slower than the Hammerhead while also being much smaller. It has more armor and energy than the Hammerhead. It shares the same flight model with the Valkyrie and the other slow House heavy fighters. It's much better suited to class 9 weapons than the Hammerhead, due to higher energy capacity and regen rate. It's bought on Cadiz in Omega-5, and you probably shouldn't bother with this fighter either, unless you like the way it looks. Titan - Finally, we're into the endgame. The Titan lives up to its name, being the most heavily armored and powered of the VHF trio. Compared to the Eagle, which shares its flight model with the Barracuda/Hammerhead/Falcon etc. , the Titan takes the Heavy Fighter flight model of the Valkyrie, Crusader, Dragon etc. Overall this is also the smallest and slowest of the three VHFs, and is not used in PvP for this reason. It's decent in PvE, due to its small size, which the NPCs have a more difficult time hitting. Thanks to its armor and low component count, the Titan can be very resilient to explosive damage, especially if the lower fin of this ship is cut. Sabre '''- The Sabre is theoretically just as slow as the Titan if one were to look at turning rate alone, at 60.09, but it has one trick up its sleeve: Sabre has a very low mass of just 75, half as much as the Eagle and the Titan. This makes it a very good strafer, as mass affects how fast a ship can accelerate, how fast it can strafe in terms of maximum strafe speed and how fast a ship accelerates into said strafe. It also affects the amount of time it takes a ship to respond to direction changes, making this more agile than the Titan, but in a weird way. It is the only VHF of the trio that can fire 7 guns in the front, and the most a fighter can have in this game, unmodded. It has less armor and energy than the Titan, but more than the Eagle, however at this point energy is not terribly important, as you have Nomad weapons available to you, which consume 0 power, making it possible to fire almost indefinitely with all the 3 VHFs. This ship is also not used very often for PvP, but it gets more use than the Titan, mostly by troll players or someone who's tired of the meta. '''Eagle - The legend of Freelancer, and not in the same way as Humpback. This is the most agile of the three VHFs, but also the least armored and with the least amount of power available(irrelevant). If someone PvP'd a lot in vanilla Freelancer, they most likely used this ship at one point, as its agility makes it the king of PvP. This is considered to be the best ship by many players, and the only ship worth buying for others. The Eagle is the most vulnerable of the three to explosives however, due to both its lower armor and the number of components this ship has. Players very often cut the lower stabilizers of this ship to increase it's resistance to explosions, but it's still quite vulnerable. Overall a highly recommended ship, very fun to fly and beautiful aswell. Anubis - I left this ship out last because it's rather unique. It's both big and slow, but it has 7 forward firing weapons. It can only be bought in the final stages of the campaign, and is recommended solely because it costs peanuts ($1100). It most closely compares to Kusarian HFs, and it's bigger than the Dragon and Barracuda, while being slower than the latter. It has more armor and energy than both, which it needs because of the additional gun and because all of its guns are class 6. Overall a unique looking ship compared to the others.